


The Weariness in Your Steps

by ObsoleteAdjectives



Category: Avengers Endgame Spoilers - Fandom, Post-Endgame - Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, avengers endgame - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fix-It, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Endgame spoilers, Stony - Freeform, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 02:42:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18651274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObsoleteAdjectives/pseuds/ObsoleteAdjectives
Summary: “I can’t be selfish. Not now. Steve, I—”“I know, Tony. I know.”“Maybe in another life.”“We’d be so lucky.”Wherein Endgame happens, but Steve isn't ready to let go yet.





	The Weariness in Your Steps

**Author's Note:**

> This story contains Endgame spoilers and probably won't make sense if you haven't watched it. Please know that this is my alternate universe as a means to fix what I thought was a gross disservice to Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. This is my wish-fulfillment fic. It's fresh off the press and teeming with my pain and anger for how my favorite characters were treated. I appreciate you taking the time out to read it.

“We could just stay here." The words wrench themselves out of Steve's throat. "Tony, think about it. We don’t have to leave. Ever.”

“Steve, we’re in _New Jersey._ In the _seventies._ We’re out of time and out of place. And what about Peggy? My father? You don’t think they’ll catch on one day, Rogers?”

“We can run away.” Steve has never sounded so hopeful… and desperate. “We— we _will_ run away.”

“I have a daughter. A wife. A family.”

“And trillions dead.”

“I can’t be selfish. Not now. Steve, I lo—”

“I know, Tony. I know.”

“Maybe in another life,” Tony whispers wistfully.

“We’d be so lucky.”

~*~

“Don’t go, Tony. Please don’t go.” Tony can barely hear the sobs from the kid – _Peter._ He tries to smile, a slight twitch of his mouth to show Peter that it’s okay, he’s okay, everyone’s okay. Everything worked out like it was supposed to. Like it was always meant to.

But his lips don’t move. He tries to lean towards Peter, to assure him that it’s all going to be okay, but his limbs don’t appear to be listening to him.

Tony knows what awaits him.

_“I watched my friends die. You'd think that'd be as bad as it gets, right? Nope. Wasn't the worst part,”_ a voice echoes in his head like a long-forgotten dream.

_“The worst part isn’t that they died,”_ a mirage of Fury, flickering behind Tony’s eyes, beckons from eons ago, _“it’s that you didn’t.”_

Peter isn’t there anymore, but Tony can still hear him crying. Pepper swims into his vision, her edges blurry and her hair like halo around her face. Her face is shining. It takes a second for Tony to grasp that it’s tears that he’s seeing.

_“Pepper,”_ he tries to cough out. Tries to tell her how much he loves her. How much more time he wishes he’d had with Morgan. He can barely sound out the syllables but Pepper, bless her, understands him as she always has.

“We’ll be okay.” Her voice, muted and distorted, is strong in conviction, and she smiles through her tears. Tony has never been gladder to have her in his life. “You can rest now.”

He can feel the strength seeping out of him – it’s dangerously swift. There’s no miracle waiting to save him this time. There’s no last-minute rescue around the curb. This is his time. He did his job. And now Pepper, Morgan, and Peter will live.

Like they were always supposed to.

He feels his head fall to the side, no longer able to support it. He sees Steve walking towards him hesitantly, like he isn’t sure he’s wanted there. Steve must see the fear in Tony’s eyes because his mouth hardens like it always does when he’s made another stupid decision, and breaks into a run.

Tony thinks of New Jersey, a hot sun beating down on two tired men, Steve’s promise of a different life. He thinks of how different things could have been in another universe.

A cloak of darkness is encasing Tony’s senses rapidly. Tony dearly wants to hold on for Steve. Steve, the only one who could see his fear and heal it. But this is a fight he can’t win. Steve is too far away. Yet again, Tony wants to reach out, to just control his body long enough to touch Steve one last time.

Steve is mouthing something, but Tony’s too tired to wonder. He’s swimming in a haze of smoke, dust, and pain. He can’t think… he can’t feel anything but a pull, similar to the one he had back in New York so many years ago as he plummeted towards the ground.

“Please.”

Tony doesn’t know whose voice he hears, knows that it couldn’t have been his own. He doesn’t wonder for long, though. He’s out of time.

~*~

“See you in five seconds, Cap,” Bruce says reassuringly.

Steve smiles, a little secretive. He knows his mission. He also knows who’s waiting for him on the other side.

~*~

“From the future, huh, Captain Handsome?”

Steve laughs. It’s the freest he’s felt in over a decade. “Yes. For the thousandth time, yes.”

“Everything will be alright, won’t it?” There’s a flicker of uncertainty in Tony’s eyes; a genius who’s faced with a life too good to be his.

“Just try not to go to Afghanistan.”

“And the _Iron Man_ I’m supposed to become?” Tony trips over his own alias – his own _name_ – as Steve has never seen before. In a flash Steve is reminded of everything that is new, that is different, the chance he’s taken. But this is the life that’s he’s chosen – for himself and for Tony. This is it.

“You will _always_ be Iron Man,” Steve says, not an ounce of uncertainty in his tone. “You never needed a heart full of shrapnel for that.”

Tony looks contemplative at that. The sunlight catches in Tony’s tawny eyes and his beauty takes Steve’s breath away for a moment. A chance at a life with Tony is nothing short of a miracle.

“A new element, you say?”

“A new element.”

“Huh. I really am a genius.”

“Don’t even get me started on Extremis.”

“Okay, there’s a lot you need to tell me. Like who designed that suit of yours because it does _nothing_ for your ass. How about you grovel for Future-me’s forgiveness over dinner?”

Steve smiles and hears himself echo a life that he had long since abandoned. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s America’s ass.”

Tony looks at him quizzically, and Steve doesn’t know whether he should be celebrating the second chance or mourning the lost lives. He’s a man lost in time and guilt.

One thing he is sure of, however. “Tony, I lo—”

“I know, Steve. I know.” Tony replies with such ease that Steve is taken back to New Jersey, the cold metal of a time machine pressing against his skin, the fate of the universe resting on his shoulders.

It’s too good to be true. Steve can’t help but ask, “And Pepper? Your life? The one that I took from you just by coming back?”

“It hasn’t happened yet. And as I see it, the other Tony already had that life. It’s not every day you get the choice to live the best of both worlds.”

“Tony—”

“I choose you, Rogers. Now where’s that dinner? All this apologizing is making me hungry.” Tony’s smile is confident and free in a way that Steve hasn’t seen in years. And, suddenly, Steve knows without a doubt that he made the right decision.

Happiness crashes over him like a tidal wave, sweeping him under and taking his breath away. Never before has he drowned in so much hope for the future.

Steve blinks rapidly, overcome by the immensity of the moment, and clears his throat. He extends his hand, knowing that once Tony takes it, Steve will never let him go.

~*~

“You gonna tell me about her?” Sam asks with a smile.

Steve holds back a laugh. He thinks of kissing Peggy goodbye. He thinks of taking Tony’s hand in his and building a home together. He thinks of sliding his fingers through Tony’s greying hair on countless nights, of the softness of the sheets that smelled like them, the beauty of a world that let them put down their weapons.

“No,” Steve says, “I don’t think I will.” 


End file.
